Strauss v. Strauss

Citations

• 220 Conn. App. 193

Syllabus

The defendant, whose marriage to the plaintiff previously had been dis- solved, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court denying his postjudgment motion to vacate a series of orders finding him in contempt for his failure to comply with the parties' separation agreement, which had been incorporated into the judgment of dissolu- tion. The plaintiff filed two motions for contempt in 2014, alleging that the defendant failed to comply with the court's orders that had been issued in response to her fifteen prior motions for contempt. The defen- dant failed to appear for a hearing on the 2014 motions, and the court found him in contempt for his failure to provide to the plaintiff his life insurance information, to pay child support, to contribute to certain required expenses and to pay her attorney's fees. At a subsequent hear- ing, the court incarcerated the defendant for one week for his failure to purge the contempt. After a third hearing in 2014, the court found that the defendant was still in contempt and issued additional orders, from which the defendant neither appealed nor filed a motion to reargue. In 2019, the plaintiff filed another motion for contempt. In 2020, the defendant filed a motion to vacate the 2014 contempt orders, arguing that the orders were issued, and he was incarcerated, in violation of his constitutional rights because he was absent from the initial 2014 hearing due to a serious heart condition. The court denied the motion to vacate, concluding that it lacked the authority to overturn a judgment of contempt rendered five years previously when the defendant alleged the court committed error in its judgment. Thereafter, the court denied the defendant's motion to stay the trial court proceedings during the pendency of this appeal. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court incorrectly concluded that it did not have the authority to vacate the 2014 contempt orders, which was based on his claim that